What makes San Francisco's setting so unique is water: the endless Pacific to the west and the glistening San Francisco Bay lapping the shores to the north and east. So it makes sense that the iconic, must-eat dish of the City by the Bay is a steaming bowl of cioppino, a seafood stew chock full of the ocean's bounty.

When you eat a bowl of cioppino, you're eating history. Many believe this dish was introduced to the Bay Area by Italian fishermen during the Gold Rush years, when a massive influx of people brought a business opportunity. They'd cook for hungry gold miners using whatever they had just hauled in, from mussels, clams, and crab, to halibut, sea bass or whatever happened to be biting.

They needed only to splash in a little white wine, some shots of olive oil, plenty of chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, and they had enough food for a boatful of hungry diners. The word cioppino comes from northern Italy: Ligurians along the Italian Riviera stew their fresh daily catch and call it ciuppin.

Today, the dish's base of tomatoes, wine and olive oil remains constant - and some chefs also use garlic, celery, onion and parsley - but the star of the show in San Francisco is often Dungeness crab. Although you can get cioppino year-round, Dungeness crab season is during fall and winter. Top places for cioppino include Tadich Grill downtown and Sotto Mare in North Beach. Chef Mario Batali hails Cioppino's on Fisherman's Wharf for serving the "best cioppino in San Francisco."

Wherever you order yours, once that steaming bowl slides on to your table, savor it. With the smell of the sea right in your hands, San Francisco's cioppino is about as memorable a meal as you could ever hope for.

Are you a fan of San Francisco's cioppino? Vote for it here, as your favorite iconic American food in the 10Best Readers' Choice Awards contest.